Boys vs. Girls

So as we speak I am sitting in focus groups listening to 9-year-old boys talk. Some are so cute you want to take them home. Others well...you feel for their parents.

But here's what strikes me the most....the utter conviction with which they speak. I only say this because sadly, many girls at this age don't tend to do this. I don't know when it happens but as some point in elementary school, girls start caring what people think. Not saying boys don't but not in the same way. And this makes me really, really sad.

This is why kids' focus groups are usually just all girls or all boys...the boys overwhelm the girls and they never get to speak. The thing is, in real life, this obviously isn't the case. So what does that mean for the girls?

Right now, A. is only two and doesn't care if her playmates are male or female. And I can't see her not sharing her feelings, since she was born opinionated from the very start. Kept refusing to wear her little hat in the hospital and everything.

But I suppose a time might come when that won't be the case; when someone's opinion will matter so much that she might not speak up at all. I hope it doesn't but it might. In the meantime, she seems quite comfortable asserting herself. I'll remind myself to be grateful for it the next time she tells me "more Elmo" or "ice pop...now!" Not that she'll get what she's asking for...but at least she's speaking up.